My new team of barangs!

Hello from Cambodia! :) Warm greetings.. and I mean WARM! I came back to my hotel room the other day and basked in its coolness... and looked down at the thermometer on my alarm clock and saw that it read 30 degrees. Ah yes, just as I remember! It's like extreme hot yoga... very much sweaty and kinda gross, but for many 90 minutes on end..  and for free! I will have no more toxins left by the end of these couple of weeks! :)

Anyways, in more exciting news, my team - Martin, Corinne, Jocelyn and Emma! I met them at the airport with jasmine flower leis :)

It's only been 2 days, but they seem to be a great bunch - pretty easy going and eager to help and get their hands dirty. It's hard not to think back and compare my team with last year's awesome goofy team that I just loved... but I'm sure this year's team will be awesome as well! In any case, as I reminded the team in our first meeting together, I work for an international development agency... not a tourist agency. And that's why we're here and hopefully we'll get to understand a lot more what that means in the coming few weeks! We spent yesterday taking a visit to the genocide museums/memorials in Phnom Penh to learn about the recent history of the Khmer Rouge regime that brutally killed more than 2 million people (some 20% of the population) just one generation ago..

One of the torture rooms in the S-21 prison :(

We're now in Pursat, the province where HOPE works, and we'll be headed to the village/community that we'll stay for the next 3 weeks tomorrow.

Hopefully more next week when we have a brief break back from the field! I used to do planning, sort pictures, write blogs and run errands, etc, early in the morning before the team wakes up. "Unfortunately", everyone on my team seems to be early bird eager beavers as well, up at 6am, so we've been starting our days pretty early instead! But, it'll be a good thing with lots of perky energy on the team! But for now, that means just a random collection of a few quick pics!

Bright coloured monks

Martin checking out the various creepy crawly goodies sold at the Central Market

Two picked out

Eughh..!

And last but definitely not least...
Celebrating the Canucks' win in front of the Royal Palace!! Whoo hoo!! :D

Alright... bedtime for now. Until next time! :)
xoxo
Rainbow